After “Don Giovanni”, “Così fan tutte” and “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” this is the fourth of DG’s series of seven Mozart operas conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and initiated by Rolando Villazón, Festspielhaus Baden Baden, and others.
Recorded with an amazing cast, one of the brightest and most insightful conductors of our day and a specialist handpicked orchestra playing at their best in the stunning venue of Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s “completely gripping, high-contrast” Figaro is “a brilliant triumph”, wrote Badische Zeitung (Germany).
The concert performance recorded here, while heaping praise on Luca Pisaroni’s “thrilling” Figaro, Thomas Hampson’s Count “illuminating every word”, Sonya Yoncheva’s Countess “recalling Callas’s vocal colors”, Angela Brower’s “fascinatingly delicate, sensitive” Cherubino and Anne Sofie von Otter’s “wonderfully perceptive, charming Marcellina”, all in a performance “crowned” by Christiane Karg’s “enchanting” Susanna and Rolando Villazón as Basilio, who “had the audience at his feet”.
Here is Ms. Karg, speaking in German (with English subtitles) and singing for us:
